Mentoring

In Teacher’s first reader submission of 2025, Brisbane-based senior educator Jessica J Griffin reflects on her own leadership practice and philosophy, and how this has changed over the course of her career – moving beyond authority to collaboration, empathy and resilience.

‘School leaders expressed a need for better-prepared new teachers who could integrate smoothly into the Independent school environment … [the program creates] a pipeline of qualified teachers who are already familiar with the school's culture and practices.’ In today’s article, we look at a new mentorship program addressing staffing needs.

‘The intention of the research was to … enhance beginning teachers’ readiness for the profession as inclusive educators, working with students with disability.’ In this article, we explore some findings of a new open-access paper that identifies areas of inclusive education where teachers perceived they weren’t sufficiently prepared.

The Future-focused Mentoring initiative has been working with teachers in 2 Australian states. In this project update, the research team share findings from analysis of conversations between teacher mentor and early career teachers, implications for practice, and what schools can do to support genuine and authentic learning partnerships.

The Future-focused mentoring initiative has been working with schools in Queensland and New South Wales. In our latest reader submission, Dr Ellen Larsen, Associate Professor Hoa Nguyen and Dr Elizabeth Curtis share details of the pilot project and its early findings.

What do you understand to be involved in the process of reflective practice? How does the process of reflective practice in Australia compare to an international approach? In this edition of Researching education: 5 further readings, we share 5 readings on the topic of reflective practice.

Brisbane’s Brigidine College, Indooroopilly has changed the way it supports pre-service and early career teachers. In the second part of our Q&A with Allison Johansen (Assistant to the Principal, Professional Teaching and Learning) we find out more about the Pre-Service Teacher Fellowship Program and its positive impact.

Attending a professional learning event is a great way to reflect on what’s happening in your own school and improve practice. For leaders at this Brisbane college, it prompted a new approach to supporting and retaining pre-service and early career teachers. Find out more in today’s Q&A.

‘[The Sacúdete strategy] shows to others what the future of school could look like when we put learners at the centre and make the "extracurricular" the curriculum. That is the lesson that other countries can learn from.’ In his new Teacher column, Andreas Schleicher shares details of a successful program in Colombia that sees educators work as mentors and coaches.

Our guest for this episode of School Improvement is Judith Weir, Principal of Our Lady of Mercy College (OLMC) Heidelberg. We caught up with her at the start of the school year here in Australia, to talk about leadership, strategic planning, how to balance competing priorities, the impact of COVID on student wellbeing and the importance of professional mentoring.